Katherine Petrie

After watching Jurassic Park in the 3rd grade, Dr. Katherine Petrie fell in love with dinosaurs. Aspiring to create a dinosaur, she gained an interest in DNA and how such a simple molecule could be used to code for an entire organism. During her 8th-grade Biology Honors class, Dr. Petrie conducted a project about the theories of how life began and where life came from. 

To explore where DNA came from and the origins of life, Dr. Petrie majored in Biology and Anthropology, and even added Japanese Studies as a triple major out of interest. During her time at the Scripps Research Institute as part of the Graduate Program, Dr. Petrie began placing random sequences of molecules in differing environments to see how they evolved, to examine how evolution occurred and the rules underlying evolution. 

In collaboration with Dr. Justin Meyer, Dr. Petrie studied evolution using bacteria and phage models. She used these model systems to explain how complexity arose from basic chemical principles and discovered a new way for evolution to occur. Dr. Petrie learned that she enjoyed thinking of new ways to explain complex scientific concepts and decided to focus more on teaching. While Dr. Petrie is still involved with research projects, her main research interests are in how students learn biology, and spends most of her time teaching undergraduate and graduate students. 

One of her proudest accomplishments is redefining how race is defined. Dr. Petrie has been working with a Master’s Student to study how contemporary DNA sequence evidence shows that there is no biological difference between people of varying races. Because there is no evidence of discrete DNA shared by members of a specific race that is separate from other races, there doesn’t exist a need to divide people into discrete races. Dr. Petrie extends her findings into the classroom where she surveys her students with open-ended free-response questions about their misconceptions about racism and how to prevent it. 

In addition, Dr. Petrie is very passionate about developing courses that make Bioinformatics more accessible to students without a computer science background. Initially, during her time as a graduate student, she strongly disliked coding but slowly taught herself how to navigate big data sets and ended up loving it. Dr. Petrie loves sharing that with her students to inspire students to try learning how to analyze biological data even though it may be intimidating at first. What inspires Dr. Petrie the most is knowing that her students will become scientifically literate and confident in their abilities. 

Dr. Petrie is also a part of the Sixth College Experiential Learning Requirement Advisory Committee. She felt that Sixth College was the perfect match for her as the Sixth College motto: Culture, Art and Technology was fitting with her background in Anthropology, designing figures/graphics to teach, and developing bioinformatics courses. The committee works together to create various ways to fulfill the Experiential Learning Requirement whether it be through an intensive laboratory course or service-based learning. Dr. Petrie hopes to create multiple ways to gain meaningful experiences that students can reflect upon in the future. 

In her free time, Dr. Petrie loves reading, especially science fiction novels such as The Lord of the Rings series, Asimov, and the Dune series. You can also find Dr. Petrie hiking at various local San Diego trails or camping in the desert. After completing an Origin of Evolution and Life Fellowship in Japan at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, she fell in love with Japanese culture. She hopes to complete her sabbatical in Japan for a long-term stay.